Musical Memories
by LainaFantasy
Summary: Music can remind people of things past. Sometimes, these memories are good; other times, they're painful. As the demigods listen to music, they remember things that are better left forgotten.
1. Sail

**Author's Note: If you follow me, you know that I've been writing a lot of Undertale stuff lately. I'm currently working on about half a dozen Undertale stories, but this little idea came to me, and I decided that it's been too long since I've written anything for Percy Jackson, so here you go.**

 **For those who are seeing this because you're following me, don't worry. I have other stories coming, including some Undertale and hopefully more Gravity Falls.**

* * *

Musical Memories

 _A Percy Jackson/Heroes of Olympus fic_

 **Chapter 1: Sail**

Annabeth had never really cared too much about music. She enjoyed it, naturally, but she never put too much thought into it. She hardly ever really payed attention to the lyrics of a song, and when she did, it was mainly to analyze the song.

It had been about half a year since the world had nearly ended. Everything was going fairly well, it seemed. The two camps were getting along nicely, the gods were more or less behaving themselves, Leo had recently come back from traipsing around the world with Calypso while leaving his friends to assume him dead, and everything was more normal than things usually were for demigods. Now, Annabeth was relaxing at her house with Thalia, who had basically showed up earlier in the afternoon and asked if she could chill for a little while. "Lady Artemis is taking care of something up on Olympus, and the other Hunters and I agreed that we would allow ourselves to relax for a day, provided that we all stayed fairly close together in case something happened. Since we were in the area, I wanted to come see you," she had explained, and Annabeth had invited her right on inside.

Annabeth and Thalia lounged in Annabeth's room, with Thalia laying back on Annabeth's bed and Annabeth sitting in her desk chair, reading a book while her laptop played some music that Thalia had picked out. Annabeth was vaguely aware that the song changed, but she didn't pay too much attention. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she recognized the song from either the radio or last time she and Thalia had hung out, but she didn't think about it until the lyrics started.

 _Sail_

 _This is how I show my love_

 _I made it in my mind because_

 _I blame it on my A. D. D., baby_

Annabeth put down the book for a moment to listen, smirking at yet another casual pop-culture reference to A. D. D. or A. D. H. D. She kept listening as the song continued.

 _This is how an angel dies_

 _I blame it on my own sick pride_

 _Blame it on my A. D. D., baby_

The smirk came off of her face. Something nagged in the back of her mind-a memory that was begging for attention, yet wouldn't come to the surface. Something about someone who admitted that his pride was about to be his downfall… who admitted that he was no angel anymore, if he ever had been.

 _Sail, sail, sail, sail, sail_

 _Maybe I should cry for help_

 _Maybe I should kill myself_

 _Blame it on my A. D. D., baby_

" _I can't go through with this,_ " Luke's voice whispered from Annabeth's memory. She remembered the day when she found him again for the first time in a while and he begged her to run with him and to help him. " _It would be better if I died, but I'm too much of a coward for that. Annabeth, please… I need your help._ " As the memories plagued her, Annabeth felt tempted to turn off the song, but she left it on as it continued.

 _Maybe I'm a different breed_

 _Maybe I'm not listening_

 _So blame it on my A. D. D., baby_

" _Stay with me, then,_ " Annabeth had told Luke, all those years ago. " _Come back to us! We'll help you. I'm sure that the others will forgive you._ " She had paused as she looked down at where her hands and his were touching. " _I know I have._ "

 _Sail, sail, sail, sail, sail_

" _I can't go back,_ " Luke had said. " _Even if they did forgive me, that doesn't change why I left in the first place. I can't stand the gods and the camp and everything else. I need to be free from it all-everything._ "

 _La, la, la, la, la… la, la, la, la, la, oh…_

" _Come with me,_ " he had begged, pleading. " _We can take my ship and sail away. Please._ "

 _La, la, la, la, la… La, la, la, la, la, oh…_

 _Sail, sail, sail, sail, sail_

" _We can go anywhere you want, just as long we get away. Just you and me… it'll be like old times._ "

 _Sail with me into the dark_

" _What about Thalia?_ " Annabeth had asked.

 _Sail_

Luke's face had darkened a little. " _She's made her choice. She's a Hunter now, and she wouldn't risk her life to run off with me again. But you aren't bound by an obligation like that. Please._ "

 _Sail with me into the dark_

" _Come with me. You're the only one who can save me now._ "

 _Sail_

" _Otherwise… Kronos… his plan is terrible. I don't want to do it. I don't, I don't…_ " Luke had started to cry, and Annabeth had pulled him close.

 _Sail with me into the dark_

" _Luke… I can't,_ " she had replied. " _I'm finally… happy. My family is doing alright, Thalia is back, and I get to see her sometimes, and I have Percy now, too. I only need you, and my life will be complete. Just stay with me, please._ "

 _Sail_

" _I can't stay, and if you won't come…_ _I'll just have to face this alone._ " He had looked over at Annabeth one more time, pleading with her.

 _Sail with me_

" _I'll… I'll consider it,_ " she had replied, trying to offer him a smile.

 _Sail with me_

She had watched the flicker of emotion in his eyes as he said, " _Goodbye for now, then, Annabeth. Please, let me know when you've decided._ " She had tried to reply, but her voice wouldn't work, and by the time it did, it was too late.

 _Sail_

The song faded out, and Annabeth became vaguely aware of tear tracks on her cheeks. The next song started up, but she wasn't listening as she thought of the boy whose life she hadn't tried hard enough to save.

The music suddenly stopped completely, and a warm, strong set of arms wrapped around Annabeth. She looked to see that Thalia had come over to give her a hug. "What's wrong?" Thalia asked.

Annabeth took a shaky breath before describing how the song made her think of Luke. All throughout Annabeth's explanation, Thalia stood in silence, though not judgingly so. When Annabeth finished, Thalia hugged her again, letting Annabeth's tears soak through the fabric of her shirt at her shoulder.

Thalia waited until her sobs stopped and she had calmed down before asking, "Did you love him?"

Annabeth contemplated this for a while before she said, "Yes, in a way… I didn't love him the same way I love Percy now, but I certainly cared for him. Seeing him in pain like that was just… too much to bear."

Thalia let out a shaky breath that might have been a laugh. "Yeah, I know what you mean. Being on the run with him for so long, I couldn't help but to feel… _something_ for him. After I came back from… tree-hood or whatever you want to call it… it was shocking to see how much he'd changed."

The two of them stayed there for a while, mourning the change and death of one whom they had cared about, before both silently agreed to brush themselves off and move on.

And not listen to _Sail_ again.

* * *

 **A/N: I hope that you enjoyed. Please let me know how I did in a review. I may add other songs as I think of ones that would fit Percy Jackson characters/situations. If you have a suggestion, feel free to submit it.**

 **Also, if you have any suggestion for a picture I could use for this story, please go ahead and suggest it. I'd like to use one for this, but I don't really know what to use/what I can use.**


	2. Bleeding Out

**Author's Note: I hope everyone enjoys this! I needed a palate cleaner from working on my main Undertale story, Living Music, since I got writer's block, so I wrote this chapter.**

 **This chapter uses the song Bleeding Out by Imagine Dragons. I recommend listening to it before reading this if you haven't heard it before and you have an accessible way to listen to music on hand.**

* * *

 **Chapter 2: Bleeding Out**

Percy was trying to do homework, but curse it all to Hades if it wasn't hard to concentrate on writing a research paper when the words of the reference work were printed in an annoyingly small font that made his dyslexia act up even worse than usual. He wished that he could get a Greek translation, but New Rome College only had English or Latin, and while Latin was better on his dyslexia than English, he wasn't fluent in it yet, so he was stuck with English in most cases. His eyes strained to read the words, and he found himself alternatively fidgeting and staring off into space as his brain refused to focus and looked for any way out.

Knowing that no amount of just staring at the words would help him to focus, he put on some background music. Last time he'd Iris-Messaged Rachel for a friendly chat to see how things were going back at Camp Half-Blood, she'd suggested a few different bands for him to listen to, so he had checked out albums from the library. He now picked up the first one he saw, _Night Visions_ by Imagine Dragons, and put it into a CD player, and he smiled as the familiar song _Radioactive_ came on. He let the song run its course, laying back with his eyes closed as he let the music flow over him. Once the song was done and the next track began to play, Percy forced himself to get back to work, turning the music down a little to let it run in the background and assist him in the monumental task of focusing on words.

He made some pretty good progress, having written a couple of paragraphs over the course of the next few tracks, before his brain gave up again, and he found himself rereading sentences multiple times without getting any meaning out of them. He wished that he had Annabeth to help him, since, even though she wouldn't find the actual reading any easier, she'd be able to help him comprehend it, but she was currently working on her own homework. Better yet, he wished that one of his non-dyslexic friends, such as Rachel or Frank (though he still didn't know why Frank wasn't dyslexic like most demigods… maybe it was the Canadian genetics), was there to read the material aloud to him and help him out, but Rachel was still back home on the East coast (and reading text through an Iris-Message is a pain, even for non-dyslexic people), and Frank was busy with his own studies.

As Percy gave up and let the music flow over him, he stopped paying attention to anything in particular and let his thoughts wander, so he was only vaguely aware when the track changed.

 _I'm bleeding out_

 _So if the last thing that I do_

 _Is bring you down_

 _I'll bleed out for you_

 _So I bare my skin_

 _And I count my sins_

 _And I close my eyes_

 _And I take it in_

 _I'm bleeding out_

 _I'm bleeding out for you_

 _For you_

Percy hardly listened, just letting his mind wander, even as the song's beat picked up and attracted some of his attention.

 _When the day has come that I've lost my way around_

Percy's thoughts remained mostly idle.

 _And the seasons stop and hide beneath the ground_

Anything involving underground had memories attached to it, and most were terrible. The worst of them, images of Tartarus, flashed through Percy's mind, and he tried to dismiss them.

 _When the sky turns grey and everything is screaming_

More unpleasant memories of Tartarus rang though his mind. He wanted to turn the song off, but he couldn't quite find the energy or motivation to do so.

 _I will reach inside just to find my heart is beating_

There had been times back then when Percy had wondered if he was even alive. Death had always seemed right there, pulling at him and at Annabeth, trying to claim them.

 _Oh, you tell me to hold on_

 _Oh, you tell me to hold on_

 _But innocence is gone_

 _And what was right is wrong_

That whole time had been so hard for him. He had learned so much in all the wrong ways, and his mind had nearly broken at a couple of points. He remembered being surrounded by horrible terrain, he remembered being narrowly saved by Bob the Titan on several occasions, he remembered the journey through the Mansion of Night when running from Nyx, he remembered fighting off the arai… there had been so much that happened, and it hurt to remember.

 _Cause I'm bleeding out_

 _So if the last thing that I do_

 _Is to bring you down_

 _I'll bleed out for you_

He thought about the fight with the arai in particular. He remembered how impossible it was to fight the spirits of curses, and how his attacks on them inflicted pain on him and on Annabeth.

 _So I bare my skin_

 _And I count my sins_

 _And I close my eyes_

 _And I take it in_

Percy remembered the sheer number of the arai, and he remembered the moment of shock as they declared themselves to be the spirits of curses wished upon him. He had fought so many monsters, but he'd been doing the _right_ thing. Being punished for it, like it was somehow sinful… being forced to count these "sins"… it had been so hard.

 _And I'm bleeding out_

 _I'm bleeding out for you_

 _For you_

He remembered trying so hard to fight to protect Annabeth, even while he was dying in a dozen different ways with dozens more wounds and pains (the uncontrollable tic in his right eye was still somehow the most annoying of all of them, mostly because he had no idea why anyone would specifically curse him like that with their dying breath, and partly because he thought of it anytime his eye twitched for any reason). He remembered wanting to give up or run away, anything instead of fighting the arai and bringing more curses on himself, but he had kept going for Annabeth's sake.

 _When the hour is nigh, and hopelessness is sinking in_

He couldn't think of a time when he had felt more hopeless and helpless than when he was unable to reach Annabeth and was stuck watching her blindly stumble around, unable to fight or flee.

 _And the wolves all cry to fill the night with hollering_

The mocking, echoing voice of the arai still haunted him, though he had had a couple of years of distance from the event.

 _When your eyes are red and emptiness is all you know_

Another memory pierced him: the betrayed look on Bob's face as he finally remembered what Percy had done to him. That stricken expression was burned into Percy's mind, and he felt guilty every time he thought of Bob. Sure, he didn't regret taking Bob's memories of being Iapetus in the first place, but he _did_ regret simply leaving Bob with Hades. He _did_ regret not telling Bob anything about who he had used to be.

 _With the darkness fed, I will be your scarecrow_

Percy wished that the darkness could be fed. Even now, years later, areas dimly lit in red made him uncomfortable, as they reminded him of Tartarus. Tartarus was still there, deep in the core of the earth, and it always would be.

 _You tell me to hold on_

 _Oh, you tell me to hold on_

 _But innocence is gone_

 _And what was right is wrong_

It had been such an ironic experience, fighting the arai. It was right to fight off these spirits that attacked him and Annabeth, but yet, it had been wrong to kill them, since he had brought himself closer to death with every one that he had struck down, as Annabeth had, too, and one of Percy's own curses had affected Annabeth by separating them while she was blind.

 _Cause I'm bleeding out_

Red filled his memories.

 _So if the last thing that I do_

It _had_ nearly been the last thing he had done.

 _Is to bring you down_

He had indirectly brought Annabeth and Bob down while trying to do the right thing.

 _I'll bleed out for you_

Curses had racked his body, but he had been ready to die to protect them.

 _So I bare my skin_

He remembered the moment when he switched to a suicidal fury, attacking the arai heedless of the consequences.

 _And I count my sins_

He had sliced down so many of the arai, not even counting as he took them down.

 _And I close my eyes_

He remembered when the gorgon's blood curse had hit him, taking all of his strength…

 _And I take it in_

…and leaving him with nothing but pain.

 _And I'm bleeding out_

He had hardly cared, though.

 _I'm bleeding out for you_

He had been prepared - and still was, if ever there was need again - to die the most painful death on earth to protect Annabeth

 _For you_

Percy tried to find the strength to get up and turn off the song, but it wouldn't come. He managed to roll onto his stomach, but all energy left him after that. Tears made their way from his eyes and were absorbed into his pillow as he was bombarded by painful memories. Phantom aches, memories of pain, flowed through his body as he remembered the sensations of being stabbed, slashed, and poisoned.

 _(I'm bleeding out for you)_

 _(For you)_

 _(I'm bleeding out for you)_

 _(For you)_

He could imagine most of this song as being written from him to Annabeth. He truly had been bleeding out for her, holding onto only the tiniest sliver of hope that maybe, just maybe, he could kill them all so that she could get away.

 _(I'm bleeding out for you)_

 _(For you)_

 _(I'm bleeding out for you)_

Pain… sorrow… hopelessness… helplessness… Percy could hardly form a coherent thought as the music unrelentingly washed over him.

 _Cause I'm bleeding out_

Red

 _So if the last thing that I do_

Dying

 _Is to bring you down_

Despair

 _I'll bleed out for you_

Curses

 _So I bare my skin_

Determination

 _And I count my sins_

Fury

 _And I close my eyes_

Poison

 _And I take it in_

Pain

 _And I'm bleeding out_

Acceptance

 _I'm bleeding out for you_

Love

 _For you_

 _ **Love**_

The music faded into an electric guitar chord that whined in what seemed to be sympathy to Percy's pain. He laid there and let the CD go to the next track, which was a far more upbeat song called _Underdog_. This next one was relatable without being too painful, and he relaxed as it played. When it was over and the next track started, he found the energy to get up and pause the CD player. He put on his shoes and a jacket, though the jacket was for comfort more than warmth on the fairly nice day. Logically, Percy knew that he needed to stay and do homework. Logically, he knew that Annabeth was busy right now. Still, it was hard to convince himself that all was fine when part of his mind was protesting that it clearly was not.

So it was that Percy made his way into the girls' side of the dorms and knocked on Annabeth's door. When she opened it, she looked like she was about to scold him for interrupting her work, but her expression melted into concern, undoubtedly from seeing the redness in his eyes and face. She wordlessly invited him into the room and led him to her bed, where they innocently cuddled as Percy shed a few more tears, remembering how he'd almost lost Annabeth on countless occasions.

Still, Annabeth was his anchor, as always, and he felt himself relaxing as he held her tight, never wanting to let go. Memories were hard to get past, and he knew that little things such as songs would trigger them for years to come, not unlike for a soldier with PTSD, but he also knew that Annabeth would be there for him no matter what, just as he would be there for her. Even beyond death, they would see each other in Elysium. Percy was sure of that.

Letting his pain and stress unwind as he held Annabeth close, Percy fell asleep, and his sleep was mercifully dreamless aside from a general sense of light, peace, and love.

* * *

 **A/N: I hope you all enjoyed. Please review and let me know what you think.**

 **PLEASE also give me suggestions for what to do next! I have a bit of a fun idea involving a song, but it would be far different from the previous two chapters, and I'm not sure it would work. Even if it does, I still need ideas on what to do next. When submitting, please put:  
** **Song title and artist  
Character (or characters) listening to it  
Memory (or memories) associated with it  
If you have an idea that breaks the format a little, that's cool, too! Just explain to me what you have in mind. :)**

 **I have no guarantees for when any of my stories come out, but, depending on suggestions, interest, and inspiration, the next chapter should be out fairly soon. See you then!**


End file.
